gems, ancient history, Sumeria, ancient geography, agate, carnelian, lapis lazuli, turquoise, chlorite, steatite, Iran, Nishapur, Afghanistan, India, Oxus, Quetta

This paper addresses the geographical location of Marhaši, a territorial and political entity well-documented in cuneiform sources from the 3rd millennium B.C. Known as Marhaši in Sumerian and Parahšum in Akkadian, the country is often mentioned alongside Elam, leading early Assyriologists to conclude that it bordered Elam. Since W. F. Albright proposed in 1925 that Marhaši lay in the mountainous region northwest or north of Elam and east of the Diyala river, this view has dominated scholarly literature. However, it turns out that Albright’s theory was speculative and unsupported by firm evidence. The most frequently cited support—a claim by the Early Old Babylonian ruler of Der, Dum-muttabbil, that he defeated the armies of Anšan, Elam, and Simashki while acting as “helper of Marhaši”—has been used to argue that Marhaši must have been located near Der (modern Badra) in the Zagros foothills. Yet, just as the same inscription once misled scholars to place Anšan north of Elam—when recent excavations at Tall-i-Malyān have confirmed it was in Fars—the assumption about Marhaši’s position may also be flawed. Only two scholars, A. Poebel (1914) and C. Wilcke (1960), have questioned the dominant theory, with Wilcke suggesting that Marhaši should be equated with the province of Fars. This paper aims to support that minority view and argue that Marhaši should be located east of Elam, not northwest or north of it.